Individuals with color blindness have difficulty distinguishing red and green. The apple on the right simulates how someone with color blindness would see the red apple on the left.

Individuals with color blindness have difficulty distinguishing red and green. The apple on the right simulates how someone with color blindness would see the red apple on the left.

Color-coded flags are used to visually provide information – and even warnings – in agriculture, but that information could be misinterpreted or even missed by individuals with color blindness.

For example, a Flag the Technology program identifies crops and other ag enterprises that are sensitive to certain herbicides and insecticides. The goal is to reduce potential risk of pesticide misapplication or injury from drift. The flags alert applicators to sensitive crops adjacent to any fields they are spraying. The color-coded flags, including red and green, are posted at entry points.

However, an individual with color blindness often cannot distinguish between certain colors. This usually happens between greens and reds, and occasionally blues.

Shani Golovay, research manager for the Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council, considers the challenges for those with color blindness who work in agriculture.

Golovay recalled working with a person who couldn’t distinguish orange or red flags marking areas in a field with a growing crop.

“He was a farm manager. He couldn’t see red or orange flags in a green field. I think it was a soybean field. He said, ‘It (the flag) looks like a leaf,’” Golovay said. “I’ve always thought about the fact he couldn’t see an orange flag in the field. When you go to order (flags), there’s a million choices.”

Golovay added the man could notice flags when the ground was bare.

She learned white flags or those with white stripes were distinguishable for the farm manager and used those in fields.

FarmWeek reached out to specialists with the University of Illinois Extension Pesticide Safety Education Program. However, neither those specialists nor others with the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association had recommendations for those with color blindness. In fact, it was the first time they’d been asked for that information.

An online agriculture message board shared information about color blindness and field marking. An applicator suggested placing an orange flag and a yellow flag on each conservation risers for custom applicators.

The man shared, while working for a soil and water conservation district, he had laid out three-quarters of a mile of grassed waterway with a laser and used bright orange flags. A contractor he had never worked with before pulled up and asked when the work was going to be done.

“I said, ‘I just did!! See all those orange flags out there!!’ That’s when he told me he was color blind, said he could see yellow,” the man posted. “I got to come back the next day and put in all yellow flags for him. I have never forgot that.”

Not only can flags be a challenge, but Golovay extended the challenge to field maps depicting adjoining areas of red and green and even to conference presentation slides with red and green markings.

While Michelle Wiesbrook, an Extension specialist with the Pesticide Safety Education Program, doesn’t have experience working individuals who are color blind, she advised “employees to make employers aware of their needs so they can provide a color of flag they can see easily in the field of green.

“Another idea would be to use a different shape, size, or style flag, perhaps,” Wiesbrook added. “Regardless, proper advance communication can help to prevent mistakes or safety issues in the field.”

Do you farm with color blindness or work with someone who is color blind? FarmWeek is interested in your suggestions and ideas that help and will share them with others. Email kshipman@ilfb.org.

Readers shared their farming challenges with color blindness and suggestions to help.

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